Years Team Role Football player 1973 Ases del Minar Height 1.65 m | 1974–1983 Comunicaciones Name Oscar Sanchez | |
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Full name Oscar Enrique Sanchez Rivas Date of birth (1955-07-15) 15 July 1955 (age 60) Place of birth Guatemala City, Guatemala | ||
Oscar Enrique Sánchez Rivas (born 15 July 1955), popularly known as El Conejo (the rabbit) is a Guatemalan football coach and former inside forward, who played the majority of his career for the club CSD Comunicaciones, and represented the Guatemala national football team at the Olympic Games and in three FIFA World Cup qualification processes.
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Sánchez is the second highest goalscorer of all time in the Guatemalan league, and has been catalogued by journalists of the region as one of the best players in the history of the nation's football. In a 1999 poll by the IFFHS, he was voted the best Guatemalan footballer of the 20th Century and among the best 20 in CONCACAF.
Club career
Sánchez' first top division club was Ases del Minar, making his debut in 1973. In 1974, he joined Comunicaciones. In 12 years with Comunicaciones, Sánchez helped the team win five league titles and was the league's top goalscorer in 4 different seasons. He holds the record for the most goals scored in a single season.
In 1977, Sánchez scored six goals in a 9-0 win for Comunicaciones against Antigua GFC, tying the league's all-time record set in 1961. He also scored five goals in two other occasions, one that same year against Tipografía Nacional and the other in 1985 against Xelajú MC while playing for Cobán Imperial.
After his departure from Comunicaciones, Sánchez played for the clubs Municipal, Aurora FC, Galcasa, Tipografía Nacional, Cobán, Izabal JC and Deportivo Escuintla. He retired in 1992, after having scored 320 goals in all competitions. From 1974 to 1992, he appeared in 609 league matches and scored 244 goals, what remained the league's all-time highest total until surpassed by Juan Carlos Plata in 2006. Sánchez ranks among the world's 150 highest top division goalscorers of all-time, according to the IFFHS.
National team
Sánchez helped the Guatemala national football team qualify to the 1976 Olympic Games, and played two matches at the final tournament in Montreal, where Guatemala was eliminated in the first round group.
His full international debut occurred on September 26, 1976 at a 1978 World Cup qualification match against Panama, where he scored a hat-trick on a 7-0 win. He also played in the 1982 and 1990 World Cup qualifying campaigns, and overall he scored seven goals in 17 World Cup qualification matches.
Coaching
After his retirement from playing, he became a coach, and managed the clubs Comunicaciones and Jalapa, among others, in the top division, and a number of clubs in lower divisions.